


The Imperial Garden (An Introduction and Notes)

by DragonaireAbsolvare



Series: The Imperial Garden [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Allegory, Fantasy, Gen, Harems, Historical Inaccuracy, Imagery, Introduction work, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Palaces, War, Worldbuilding, references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28531575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonaireAbsolvare/pseuds/DragonaireAbsolvare
Summary: Introduction piece with context to my original work, The Imperial Garden. Notes for the world-building that do not fit in with the rest of the stories will also be added here.
Series: The Imperial Garden [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090055





	1. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much of this fic was inspired from reading historical BL (especially the imagery of Akh'ne Dju's Imperial Harem is heavily based on the chinese harems shown in webnovels and manhua) but I've tried to change details to fit an imaginary world.

The dynasty of Akh’ne had ruled for over three centuries, expanding their reign from a small kingdom of nine hundred yarns1 to an empire of sixty two thousand yarns at its largest following which the Imperial family tore at each other’s throats and divided the empire into smaller kingdoms, all of which fell one by one to attacks from the Raon tribes or were gambled away. The royal family had always been warlords, always out to conquer new territories, and the only exception was some fifty-odd years of relative peace towards the end of the dynasty. This calm before the storm lasted from the last few years of Emperor Yan and through the lifetime of Emperor Sein.

The peace established by Emperor Yan came at the cost of several kingdoms and massacred royal bloodlines; but he succeeded in expanding the borders to an extent never seen in the era. His son, Akh’yan Sein, was a frivolous ruler, far into the pursuit of pleasure and a great patron of the arts, and it was in his regime that the greatest literary works of the period were written. Craft and trade flourished, and the palace grew.

Emperor Sein’s harem boasted of a hundred and five beauties and their maids, and his army was the terror of Akh’ne Dju2.

This is a collection of tales about people in the Empire of Akh’ne Dju.

* * *

**1 Yarns:** A unit of area measurement. One yarn is about fifty square miles.

 **2 Akh’ne Dju:** Dju means Great, so the country is named Great Akh’ne. This will be used interchangeably.


	2. Allegory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stories will be based on allegories from the Imperial Garden of Akh'ne Dju, hence the name. This chapter will be updated as I go on with the stories.

The capital of the Empire of Great Akh’ne boasted a great many things, but nothing compared to the sheer magnificence that was the Imperial Palace. This palace was a small fort-city in itself- built on a terraced hill looking over the capital city and a yarn and half squared in area. The palace was made of the finest timber and stone that could be transported to the capital. Gilded were its columns, the rafters carved with elaborate detail by master craftsmen, the roofs made of hand-painted, glazed porcelain tiles and its structure divided into courts, towers and cloisters all connected together by corridors running along picturesque gardens.

The Imperial Garden at Akh’ne Dju was split into four major gardens on four parts of the palace. The largest was the Summer Garden- filled with the loveliest long-blooming flowers and colourful evergreen trees in the Empire- it was always laden with fruit and one could see bright insects dancing from flower to flower and the twitter of birdsong could be heard from anywhere in the garden. This garden was at the very front, and anyone wishing to meet the Emperor had to cross the garden to reach the Outer Courtroom. It was a show of splendour and wealth- a psychological trick that always worked to astound the beholder.

The Winter Garden was at the very back, and stretched along the back of the hillside. The garden was brightest in autumn, its trees a dazzling myriad of warm shades- more colours than a painter could express on paper. A stream ran from the hilltop there, zig-zagging down the slope and forming little ponds and waterfalls that slowed to a bare trickle in the coldest months. On the terrace-sides were vertical gardens of climbing plants, colourful fungi and a wall of medicinal herbs. This garden also hosted the rarer plants from the West, the only portion of the Empire that received snowfall.

There were two rock gardens to the North and South sides, adjacent to the banquet halls and Inner Courts, and the library pavilion respectively. Its pebbles were of all shapes and sizes, and the carefully chosen alabaster-white gravel was raked every day to remove the red heart-shaped leaves of the Goldendew tree, the only type of plant grown there.

The final was a series of ponds and waterways that ran across the centre of the palace, splitting the inner and outer palaces. Hyacinths and lilies grew under the bridges, covered by drooping branches of willow and wisteria. Lotuses stood upright and proud in the ponds, and the pavilions here were all raised on stilts. A lone fountain stood at the centre of the palace complex where four such pavilions intersected, made of carved white marble and placed on a series of equally carved stone steps. It was a favourite spot for concubines to gather on rainy days, where raindrops hitting the roof were channelled into porcelain pipes with chambers- making strange, ethereal music.

Breathtaking as they were, the Imperial Gardens had deeper secrets. Every blade of grass, falling leaf, chirping bird and skipping butterfly had their own stories to tell.

~***~


End file.
